A flurry of news broke out over yesterday regarding the
proprietary headphones required by Apple's new iPod shuffle, and now that Monday's here and everyone's back in the office, some things are starting to get cleared up. For starters, both Macworld and Boing Boing Gadgets have confirmed with Apple and various third-party vendors that the
new shuffle headphones do in fact contain a proprietary control chip, and that would-be headphone makers have to pay to license it from Apple as part of the Made for iPod program. Yep, that's bad news, confirmed -- but all hope for inexpensive accessories isn't lost, as we're told that the chip isn't encrypted or otherwise locked down in any way, so it's easily cloned by companies who'd rather not pay. Still, eschewing Made for iPod certification pretty much dooms a product to niche status in the Apple universe, so it's a pretty weak consolation -- when this all shakes out, we're guessing only Apple-taxed headphones will be widely available for the shuffle, and that makes the value proposition somewhat hard to see. Just say no, people.
Read - Macworld
Read - BBG
posted Mar 16th 2009 4:09PM
Apple confirms self-destruction to iPod Shuffle sales.
Self destruction? This is a revolutionary idea. By introducing this chip, Apple ensures that we, the consumers, get the best performance possible.
Thanks, Apple!
CRAPGADGET OF THE YEAR! No, of the decade!
@iloveapple
shut up
YES! you are correct iLuvApplets,
Just like the Printer Manufactures, they want to ensure that you only use their refills so that you get the best possible blacks and yellows possible, and Apple wants to make sure that you get the best possible sound instead of using those par of $250 sure you have...
AHAHAH!
Obvious troll is obvious.
Initially I don't think it will hurt the sales. Rather, it will become a PR nightmare as customers learn the hard way how expensive and complicated it will be to use the headphones of their choice (not to mention how complicated it will be period just to operate the thing).
My sister simply can't use most earbuds, so I have no clue when she would be able to use one of these if she just bought it. It's tupid, too, because if Apple insisted on this assinine approach, all they had to do was put a second 3.5 mm connection AFTER THE FREAKING CONTROLS.
I second the 3.5 mm jack on the cord after the controls. They could completely leave headphones out: give you a short cable with the controls a 3.5 mm jack at the end, and voila its a byo headphones party. Most people bitch about the ipod headphones anyway so apple saves a dollar and leaves the door open for yet another ICessory (short cables with licensed chips in them).
LOL, my 1GB MP3 player for $15 is small (1.5"x1.5"x1/4") and has a screen, a microphone, controls, games (tetris) and can play video.
Beat that, Apple!
(It says MPK1062 at the back, made by Curtis.)
Whether or not it will affect initial sales depends on how quickly people realize these things are a scam... at 30 days or less, I'm not betting on the mass of consumers figuring it out on time.
This can be semi-remedied, by someone making a "headphone extension cable with inline remote" then you can connect any headphone to. You might have a long ass cable, but you can use any headphone.
Just like the GEN1 iphone recessed jack. and all of the adapters that were released for that.
Cool, I have the Curtis SMP 1002 shuffle clone... Very good!
plays wma and mp3
I guess the shuffle is aimed at people who dont really use it for the sake of enjoying music as an 'audiophile' would, so they can put up with Apples crappy headphones, lack of easily being able to choose what to listen to, rubbish iTunes software etc. The new shuffle itself is an abomination anyway.
@ILoveApple
Your sarcasm is genius, shame you got modded down.
iGreed meets bag-o-hurt.
i just dont know if i can laugh anymore my side hurts
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
nope, I guess I was wrong, always have room for that
Don't worry people, Apple will sell you a 3.5 mm extension cord with built in controls! $39.99
All you guys will forget all about this in about a week and will probably buy two sets of Apples' proprietary headphones while your face is still pink from their numerous E-facepalms.....
When I got my iPod Classic 80gb a year and a half ago, I was pissed when I learned I couldn't play videos on a dock, except for some overpriced Apple shiny dock.
I love Apple's design and styles, but ever since the MacBook Error, I mean Air, its been down hill from that. Unexciting iPod updates, massive overpricity, and other factors have turned me away from Apple. The only thing I like about Apple is OS X, and even so, I do dual boot with Windows 7.
I think fanboys on both sides are stupid, as are their misconceptions. Yes, OS X supports right click. Yes, Vista can be good.
Vista is NOT made for your computer stuck in your basement for 5 years. It is meant to run on higher end machines with the processing power to utilize it to full capability.
Mac OS X runs, if you tweak it just a bit, on non-Apple hardware. Its pretty easy.
I have had my gripes with Apple. I don't like their business practices.
Its great to have both Mac and Windows.
I went and played with one today and an apple store, and by played mean pick it up, i'm not putting those headphones on. It is insanely small. I will give them that. But all the crap that goes along with it, no thanks. Ordered my new 8GB nano for 133 shipped free.. And it can use my sport headphones, which is what i'm using the nano for anyways.
wow, happy to jump on apple huh?
it's not drm. it's volume control. look it up.
/the anti apple mafia now pisses me off more than the ms one.
Great idea Apple, repeat the mistakes that helped doom Sony to its current state of near failure.
Funny how you fuckers bashed Apple to pieces in yesterday's article and now you get to know that were all wrong.
Lolz.
bullshit
Yea, leave it to Apple to remove DRM from all songs but it ends up on the Headphones!
AHAHAH! Apple has you guys by the Mc.Nuggets...
Wouldn´t that be the iNuggets?
Correction: Apple did not remove DRM from songs. What they have done is offer to remove some of the DRM if you give them a lot more money.
The problem is that this isn't targeted at people like you, but at people who know shit about this stuff and just buy it cause it's Apple and think they have the best in the world, no matter how much it costs.
@required
All new songs you buy as of the end of April will be DRM free. If you want to get a DRM-free copy of one you already bought, yes, then you have to pay a few cents. Bandwidth isn't free you know. (And before you even think of responding to that, I work in network architecture and hosting - I *know* bandwidth.)
You can get around iTunes DRM by writing your files to an audio CD while in iTunes and then importing them back again. I can't understand why anyone would buy music from the iTunes Store and NOT back it up on a disk. Yeah, this way is a bit of a faff if you are just wanting to 'send them to your friends' *ahem*, but there are ways around it. I personally have only bought one album from iTunes and I have it on CD in a wallet as well as on my hard drive.
*Limewire
@Required - your comment only becomes true when you replace "Apple" with "the record labels" ... it was the record labels' decision to impose DRM in the first place, it was their decision to remove DRM, it was their decision to charge for DRM-less versions of music you already have, and it is they who are receiving the lion's share of the upgrade charge. Not Apple, because they do not own the music, they cannot determine the conditions of sale - only the owners (the labels) can do that.
Bandwidth is irrelevant for DRM stripping. Apple knows how to remove the DRM, all they would have to do is package a utility with iTunes. And, considering how much bandwidth they have, the additional cost would be negligible.
@John – it's not that simple. DRMed songs were sold to you under different legal agreements with you, and different agreements with the record labels. Sure, they could build a tool to strip DRM off, and negotiate agreements to allow it – but there's no profit in it; just a marginal PR win that few people will care about, and little gain for most users.
::facepalm::
Make that a triple face palm as this marks an evil beginning. Expect Apple to apply this ludicrousness to the up and coming revision of the iPhony and Nano.
@Homeboy
Evil Beginning? you must have woken up from the iHipnotize spell because this has been Apple practice for quite a while. It is sad that there are so many Sheeple still asleep and follow their leader Jobs and do whatever he says and buy whatever he Apple makes.
that's bogus
Poor apple, poor apple. Just stupid
Poor Apple? I feel sorry for the poor consumers who buy it because it's Apple and it must be good. Sure, to me it's pretty crazy that you can even sell an MP3 player without so much as a simple two-digit LCD telling you what track you're on, but I pity anybody who somehow still doesn't understand what makes a DAP functional, and especially pity anyone who additionally can't use Apple's cruddy included earbuds.
I am sorry, Apple has been stupid since it was founded.
In the PC area, they had a superior product (they still do) but they have less than 5% of the world market, Why? Stupidity!
This is another example of Apple being Apple.
How so?
iPod shuffle was $49, this one is $79... Seems to me Apple is making some big scratch on each of these little DRM turds
it's more ethically challenged then it is stupid because if they get away with it it's evil-genius
True.
But Apple can't really do anything about the fact that PC users are stupid.
All they can do is keep making the best products in the industry.
@chispito
You must realize that the Apple earbuds included with the iPods just don't fit some people's ears, mine included.. something about them makes them fall out with the a bit of movement, and if you're buying a shuffle, it's meant for exercising and s**t like that.
It's not THAT complex though: http://techspank.com/?p=215 (how to replace the buds on the apple headphones instructional video).
Epic Fail.
I thought Apple understood that the 2nd generation Shuffle was nearly perfect when they chose to simply update the colors during the last major iPod update. Apparently not.
I hope the market rejects this iteration hard. Apple needs to know that going this far to sacrifice usability for style isn't excusable.
Your Dead Right! Without Lowering My Comment Rank, I Genuinely Think That It Was THE PERFECT Low Budget MP3 Player, Know They Have F*cked It Up. Don't lower my rank for expressing an opinion, we all have the rights, even apple fanboys and windows fanboys. but not linux, lets face it, they're like the loser at school (please don't its just a joke!)
Don't tell me what to do cameron, enjoy your lighter shade of grey.
I'm a fan of the first gen shuffle myself, but eh.
lol @ "Low Budget" while referring to Apple -.-
It's not even for style. Why do I want to dick around with controls that are swinging on a cord, twisting the wrong direction, slipping away from your fingers because they're not secured...
Look at that picture: It proves that there's plenty of room on the surface of the player for controls. Even that's irrelevant, because nobody was bitching that the previous one was TOO BIG. They could have kept its design the same, boosted its memory, and added this asinine controller in the headphone cord. Everybody happy.
This turd will join the Mighty Mouse, the puck mouse, the FireWireless MacBook, the glossy-screened laptops, the defective headphone jack on the first-gen iPhones, and who knows what else in the collection of evidence that undermines the Apple "elegance" myth.
You know they've really churned out a piece of garbage when the apologists are so roundly beaten down by the chorus of disapproval. It's high time they were called on this crap.
You guys forgot the "not-surprising" tag on this article.
well what was uber surprising was the last sentence... engadget telling us to say no to Apple!?!? i feel so proud!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH....
takes a breath/
AHAHAHAHHAH!!!!!!
Well there you have it folks, you have a choice, buy the old shuffle or buy the new one and keep exchanging the headphones for a year or as long as your Apple warranty has been extended...
So Apple is basically saying that this is a premium product for people who know moose code and don't mind violated walletly...
"people who know moose code and don't mind violated walletly"
... OW, MY BRAIN. UN-F*CK IT NOW.
So will the new Shuffle work with my Shure SE530 IEM's?
Short answer: No
Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Unless you buy an Apple certified adaptor of course. Huzah!
For the millionth time, yes.
Your Shures will work as well as any other earbuds which don't have any control buttons. Which means you can listen to music, you just can't change tracks, volume or pause.
Personally, I find that to be less than satisfying, so I won't be buying a Shuffle. But how can anyone say it is unexpected? Did people just expect the Shuffle to grow buttons on it if you plugged in headphones that didn't have buttons?
Forget the talk about DRM. Forget the talk about what is proprietary. Just remember, if you plug in a line out cable or earbuds without controls on them, you can't do much except listen until the battery dies.
Your money would be best spent on Westone, who makes 3-driver ear
buds for around $200 or so. Many swear Westone's ear buds are better
than Shure and a lot of musicians use them when performing live.
My guess is that shure will have an adapter coming out. It will almost certainly be $50 though like the one for the iphone. It probably doesn't make much sense to purchase for the shuffle alone, but if it works with current and future iphones, its not so bad. It would be cool to have the volume control on the iphone headphones. I'm not totally sure why they didn't do that the first or second time around considering they had this on the remote of the 3G ipod "classic."
The current shure adapter button does nothing on the new shuffle. It would be great if it did since I could set volume normalizing on (done through itunes) and just use the button to navigate and all would be fine. I have no interest in investing more money into the shuffle, so I am going to just stick with the buds that came with it. Its not going to be my primary player. Any headphones play fine, once you turn the shuffle on, it just starts going, so assuming you set the playlist and volume the way you want, you could just head for a run with any headphones and let it do its thing, but that's a bit silly.
I find this situation a little frustrating even though I always intended to use the stock phones. I'm (I guess) one of the few that actually really likes the design idea. The controls are pretty intuitive and straight forward. If you can tie your own shoes, you'll probably be fine. The buds that came with it are not that bad. They seem much improved over any I've tried from apple (didn't touch the ones with the iphone, so they could be the same). I'm used to using really nice phones from grado, sennheiser, and shure or really nice speakers from b&w. They are about right for the scenario I expect to use the shuffle: working out, jogging, biking. They are especially good if you want to hear what is going on around you.
I was at the apple store on Saturday (14th street NYC) and now it looks like all the apple-branded earbuds (even the $80) are now this new style with the volume controls in addition to the mic and button. The strange thing is the set that came with the shuffle seems to lack the mic (I did not confirm this through testing), so maybe its a slightly different model than the earbuds they are selling separately. With the shuffle earbuds on the iphone, you can use the normal button controls, but the volume controls have no effect.
This probably is further evidence that additional product refreshes are coming (iphone, I'm looking at you) as I don't see them doing this purely for the shuffle. I don't have a current-gen nano or classic to test the functionality on to see if its already there.
The Apple faithful will gladly bend over and take it just as they always do.
lol
Next step: Apple devices only play Apple-licensed music.
I really hate that one. I hate that I can't play music I bought in their store on stereos I didn't buy from their store. It's asinine. Now they want me to give them hundreds of more dollars to do so.
Buy CD's? You have them forever, they come with cool art, you can copy them literally anywhere plus the quality is fantastic.
I'm stunned that this many people care when almost none of us will actually buy a shuffle anyways. A shuffle is great for a kid or someone just needs something to listen to when working out or something. For $79, those headphones and the shuffle are just fine. I know I'll get negatively ranked for this, but the point is worth making. If you want to use a shuffle with nice headphones, you should probably be looking at least the Nano.
So how quick am I gonna get negatively ranked?
I was going to and then I saw your last name, which I misread as "Boner-heimer" at first. You've suffered enough, brah'.
I actually was considering buying one of these purely to workout with. The problem is that the included earbuds suck to workout with. They simply WILL NOT stay in my ears. When I workout, I wear headphones that are water resistant so you can rinse them off and have remove-able plastic pieces that wrap around the ear so the earbuds stay in. There's no way I'm paying extra money for the ghey adapter to use my current head phones, or buying new headphones w/ apple's special chip.
You actually do make a good point. So no down ranking is needed.
People that buy a DAP and want great sound through a good set of headphones are not likely to buy a minimalist DAP. Most audiophiles I know generally like the larger iPods, Zune, Creative, etc. devices.
Even so, the Nano is still acceptable to jog or work out with and it's price isn't much different than the shuffle considering the headphone situation.
"A shuffle is great for a kid"
Good luck teaching a kid how to use the controls of this thing.
News to you. Kids break shit. It's not so painful when you can spend £3-4 on some cheap phillips ones, but ponying up £25 every time would get painful. The apple headphones are pretty skanky in build, and fall apart easily. I was considering one of the new shuffles as a nice little player for when I want to go without my N800, which despite having a good music player is not exactly pocketable. Now I'm looking at something else, probably the sandisk ickle one. That Macbook Pro isn't looking so appealing now.
Agreed. The nano has equalizer preset functions and other sound "enhancing" features. The shuffle never did, so its doubtful this will be a "BIG" deal. However it does mean someone cannot use their currently favorite headphones.
I think the point here is, what happens when this spreads to the other iPods or Apple's computer lineup? Proprietary has almost never been designed to help the customer or save them money.
weak apple, weak. what's next, chips in after market mice, web cams, keyboards, power chargers, speakers... etc?
And what if there isn't? Blab Blab Blab with 1 model
Apple would never want you to use speakers on an ipod... then they would some how have to charge each and every person who can hear the music. the music that only you paid the rights to listen too.
I know, it's amazing - electronics require chips! Those electrons don't just magically route themselves...
I have a hunch that Apple sees themselves much higher on the pedestal then they really are. I hope they don't destroy themselves because I still like much of their wares.
Bad bad move apple way piss everyone off your Jobb less era is not going well at all............
Sad thing is Apple will still make huge profits off this. It was the same with glossy Mac displays, the transparent Leopard menu bar, and so on... in the end people still bought all those products and loved 'em and it'll be the same with this shuffle.
L-O-fucking-L. This better take top honors for Worst Gadget of the Year when the 2009 Engadget Awards roll around. I'm nominating it as of now.
I like your style, Dude.
It'll end up on the "Best Gadget of the Year", since it's crapple.
Did Apple not learn ANYTHING from the first-gen iPhone headphones??? Or is this their way of committing iPod shuffle suicide? Apple, if this is a joke, it's not very funny.
worst gadget of 2009
not according to much of the "free press" - they seem to be "reporting" their standard issue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_news_release
Ssshhhhh!
You haven't seen the line-up of new iPods this Fall yet!
For realz? What about the proprietary chip inside the shuffle? What about the proprietary chipz in your monitors? On your graphics cards? What about that huge frakking proprietary chipz that execute your code? I don't even want to think about the proprietary chipz in your keyboardz and mousez.
OMG! There are proprietary chipz in my phone! In my phone, I say. What do I do now? How can I protect myself?
Please Engadget, provide guidance on how I can steer clear of these proprietary chipz!
Oh, all you're really saying is that there's a circuit in the button doohickey to encode button presses but it's not protected in any way, someone can just reimplement it? Nevermind.
I don't think that there are "proprietary chipz" in monitors that keep users from seeing things the way their new iPod keeps users from hearing things.
Yeah, I'm sure you would be just fine with a proprietary chip in your keyboard or mouse that prevents you from buying a reasonably-priced alternative.
"Oh, your mouse died? For only $75 we'll give you a brand-new one-button mouse!"
@required:
The closest I can think of is HDCP for DVI and HDMI, it uses "chipz" for authentication but not all monitors have HDCP.
But Howard there is a chip in your keyboard and your mouse that force you to buy a licensed product. Its called USB and every USB item you buy has a license fee attached to it.
SO SHUT THE ^&**& UP.
Um, asshats - you can hook up standard earbuds. They'll work for sound. You just can't control the thing (because you have no controls...).
Anyone who thinks that hooking up plain old earbuds won't produce sound is simply *wrong*.
Joshua Ochs, if you can't make it play music...
Yeah, there are chips in everything. But if you had to buy a non-standard power cable for your monitor at a significant fraction of the price of the monitor, you'd bitch too. Unless your nose was firmly planted in Steve Jobs' ass.
In the interest of continuing with our absolute outrage about this, we must low-rank you. Never mind that you make a valid point.
"SanDisk is revising its Q2 earnings upward on projections of increased Clip sales due to widespread consumer disatisfaction with Apple's new 3G shuffle. Industry experts state that this may heald the general rejection of industrial design and the Mac myth that 'It just works'."
Forex, is your quote some part of a news report, or of your own creation? Source/cite? Interesting stuff, either way. ;)
Made up. So it's not interesting in the slightest.